Reading 2k
by bugsy*
Location: High Wycombe/Reading
Date: 31st December 1999
Soundsystems: J14-Survival/Freestate- Engineering-J10
Rather than writing a number of different reports, I thought I’d gather together the information I had about the various parties which happened over the NYE celebrations. First up, I went to the Junktion 14/Survival party near Aylesbury. Although unfortunately the original location was raided early on by a police taskforce arresting several people in the process; the second location, a series of huts in the middle of nowhere was looking good as a convoy of about 60 cars arrived, but unfortunately the system hadn’t been setup…
However half an hour or so later, the police turn up in force. A riot van and 8 or so cars. Their intention: not to let this party happen! Coming in heavy handed, outside of the law, they STOLE a set of decks. No public orders were served on Junktion 14 or Survival. After hanging around for a while, it was looking like the police were not going to leave so we decided to head over to Reading, heading for a party happening near the (annual) festival site. A large warehouse was used and after finding the place around 11.30pm we entered the building via the kitchens. Junktion 10 were in charge of the Drum and Bass room, Freestate had a large system setup in the next room and were playing old skool tunes, while in the main room, Engineering had another large system playing the beginnings of loud techno. A chill out room had also been setup and setup quite well – sporting comfy seats, a bar and laid back sets of acid jazz and chilled music. We had a good night here, but things might have been very different had the first J14 venue not been busted.
Other parties happening around the South of England were all over the place. Listing but a few, the main three London parties were all packed out. Shoreditch had 6 floors of systems and played host to a lot people – may’be too many. In Uxbridge, Underground Sounds/United Systems did their thing in a huge abandoned sports hall. Over in New Cross, Headfuk, Damage Control held a party in a disused Bingo Hall – combining all of their systems to fill up the main room. Exodus had a large attendance of 4000 people, using the same building they used for their Xmas Day party. Down in Bournemouth a large Squat Party was raided and even in Norwich a large party was stopped from happening in a disused factory.
